Oral administration of medicaments to children presents special problems. Children often have difficulty swallowing pills and due to the undesirable taste of liquid medicaments may refuse to swallow the same.
Pills, capsules and tablets are generally not acceptable for use in small children because if improperly swallowed, they may lodge in the child's throat thereby causing choking. This problem may be overcome by grinding of the pill or tablet into a powder which facilitates administration. However, the grinding, collecting and administering process often results in a loss of varying portions of the medicament and may effect drug absorption and thereby effecting dosage accuracy.
As previously stated, the poor taste often associated with liquid medicaments creates problems in administering these medicaments to children. Further, children often are frightened of taking even liquid medicaments and actively resist ingesting the same. These situations may lead to aspiration of the liquid medicament by the child. Choking is therefore a problem, even with liquid medicaments.
As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,311,923 to Lautmann issued on Feb. 23, 1943 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,142 to Puglia issued Jun. 2, 1981, medicaments may be placed in candy form to facilitate their administration, particularly to children. Lautmann '923 teaches a cough drop having a hard, edible, candy shell and a medicated liquid center. While the cough drop overcomes the problems associated with liquid medicaments, other problems arise in administrating this type of solid candy medicament to a child. Of particular concern is that this form of medicament may be accidently swallowed and lodge in a child's throat resulting in choking. This drawback is associated with the medicaments of both the Lautmann '923 and Puglia '142 type candy medicaments.
The present invention overcomes the problems associated with a candy coated medicament by providing a handle for support. The handle also may be used as sealing means to seal the liquid medicament in the cavity provided by the dissolvable candy shell.
The prior art with respect to handle supported medicaments, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,671,953 and 4,863,737 both to Stanley, issued on Jun. 9, 1987 and Sep. 5, 1989 respectively, generally teach medicated lollipops wherein the medicament is dispersed throughout the entire confectionery matrix of the lollipop. The medicament enters the patient's system through a transmucosal dosage. Although the Stanley patents recognize the utility of medicated lollipops in controlling the dosage provided to the patient, the dosage is varied by placing the medicament in different concentrations in the various solid layers of the lollipop. This requires monitoring of the patient to ensure administration of the proper dosage. According to the prior Stanley patents, once the desired analgesic effect is obtained, the lollipop is taken away from the patient. Hence, active supervision is necessary to regulate the dosage.
One problem associated with the administration of medicaments in the manner disclosed in the prior Stanley patents is that accidental ingestion of the entire lollipop or a significant portion thereof may result in over medication of the patient. Such accidental ingestion may occur by chewing the medicament rather than allowing it to dissolve slowly in the patient's mouth. Further, the Stanley patents, as well as other prior handle supported medicaments such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,085,634 issued to Lackney on Feb. 4, 1992 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,551,329 issued to Harris on Nov. 5, 1984, do not teach nor do they suggest the use of liquid medicaments or the dispensing of medicaments by a pharmacist into a specially adapted candy shell having a cavity for receiving fluid medicaments.
In general, the present invention provides a drug delivery system which allows easy administration to children without the problems of the prior art discussed above.